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Charcuterie boards are everywhere and coming out in all different forms: traditional meat and cheese, dessert, junk food, hot cocoa, nachos. So it was only a matter of time until “dogcuterie” or “barkcuterie” boards started appearing just for dogs all over social media.
These special plates of treats for pups are getting fancy too, with items like specially-made dog cookies, organic meat sticks, and flower and herb garnishes for presentation.
A dog charcuterie board would be a great way to celebrate your pet’s birthday, a holiday, or another special day.
So with my mini schnauzer’s birthday coming up, I decided to try out a dogcuterie board for Boomer. I picked out packaged dog treats from the store, trying to find a variety of flavors. There were chicken meatballs and jerky, turkey-flavored biscuits, bacon chew sticks, peanut butter crunchy treats, and bacon and apple-flavored cookies.
Besides packaged dog treats, there are many healthy whole foods you can give to dogs. I added carrots and apples to Boomer’s dogcuterie board since he’s basically part bunny and will chew those up quickly when he’s in the mood.
While cheese is often featured on human charcuterie boards and your dog may love it, go easy on the fromage for Fido as it’s fattening and can upset their stomach. That’s a good note to take with anything you put on these dog charcuterie boards.
Also cross-check the list of foods that can be toxic to pets to make sure you’re not serving up anything harmful. I added Jif Natural peanut butter to my dogcuterie and checked it didn’t have xylitol in it. But some people prefer to get no-sugar-added, dog-friendly peanut butter.
What your dog charcuterie board looks like is entirely up to your creativity and the size of the serving dish you use. Boomer found me putting his dogcuterie together on one of our cheese boards — he’s so spoiled — and looked excited to sniff out the results.
My finished dogcuterie plate was pretty earth-toned. I think next time I’ll add some blueberries and celery for more colors. But Boomer of course didn’t care about my presentation so much as getting the treats in his belly.
I didn’t let him eat everything on the board in one sitting as that would have been too much for his stomach. He happily nibbled on some meatballs, crunchies and jerky cuts, and I left him a carrot and apple before packing away the rest of the treats for later. If you have more than one dog digging in, you might not have to be as careful with portion control.
In the end, the dog charcuterie layout is clearly for a pet’s humans, but it was pretty easy to put together and looked nice. After this test run, I’ll be doing this again on Boomer’s actual birthday.
How about you? Is pet charcuterie something you’d do for your pup?
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